Quebra Cabeça
What a coincidence! So yesterday we walk by the Bixiga 70 poster in our office from their Berlin performance at YAAM in June, 2016. And we wonder if it wouldn't be about time for a new album. We visit their Twitter page, don't see any apparent news and move on to the next artist on our list. Then today, while browsing our timeline, we discover a post by Glitterbeat Records, announcing the collective's upcoming fourth album, to be released on October 12th!
“From the very beginning, what we have always had in common is African-Brazilian music,” explains baritone sax player and flautist Cuca Ferreira. "Some of us come from candomblé (the African-Caribbean religion), others from jazz, reggae, dub, everything. The whole idea of the band has been to take all these different elements that form us, from Africa and Brazil, and create a hybrid from them.”
Since their 2015-released album "III", the acclaimed horns-driven ten-piece has been on the road, performing with established artists the likes of Pat Thomas, Orlando Julius or João Donato. These rich and new experiences have now made their way onto the group's forthcoming longplayer "Quebra Cabeça", which they claim is "more complex" and "different" than their previous arrangements.
"Throughout though, the heartbeat of everything remains utterly African, refracted through the prism of the band’s home in the Bixiga neighbourhood of São Paulo. 'What we put on top of that is essentially urban São Paulo music,' Ferreira continues. 'This city has been a huge influence on us. It has that sense of urgency, always running to catch up. It’s expensive, and services are awful, with so much pollution and violence. But it’s our home and it was developed through immigration. Bixiga is where people come first of all. It’s always had that influx; it’s the story of São Paulo in miniature.'"
For now, we only got a preview of the album's title track, along with a trippy and somewhat sinister accompanying video, which you can see below. But through all the colourful complexity, Bixiga's vibrant, contemporary funk is still very much alive.
Bixiga 70 are:
Chris Scabello - guitar
Cuca Ferreira - baritone sax, flute
Daniel Gralha - trumpet
Décio 7 - drums
Daniel Nogueira - tenor sax
Douglas Antunes - trombone
Marcelo Dworecki - bass
Maurício Fleury - keyboards, guitar
Rômulo Nardes - percussion
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